


In which Rosemary finds a fascinating new plant

by azvin



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Rosemary and Thyme
Genre: F/F, magical plants, unusual side effects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 09:14:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21425791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azvin/pseuds/azvin
Summary: “What do you think it is?”“Magical and therefore not belonging here, that’s what it is."
Relationships: Rosemary Boxer/Laura Thyme
Comments: 3
Kudos: 27
Collections: Femslash Exchange 2019





	In which Rosemary finds a fascinating new plant

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cân Cennau (gwenynnefydd)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwenynnefydd/gifts).

“What do you think it is?” Rosemary asked, staying carefully back from the strange plant that was writhing in the back corner of a perfectly normal, perfectly muggle, suburban garden. 

“Magical and therefore not belonging here, that’s what it is,” Laura poked at the plant with a stick, then jumped back as a purple flower spit sparks at her. As they watched, the flower went through a series of rapid color changes, from purple to green to pink to blue, and finally settling on bright orange before bursting into flame. A fine cloud of blue seeds shot out of the charred remains of the flower and began to drift towards the back fence.

“Oh no you don’t!” With a quick look around to make sure there weren’t any muggle onlookers, Rosemary pulled her wand from her hip pack and cast a spell. Pink sparks shot from her wand, trapping the seeds in a sparkling net. 

Laura scrambled in the her bag, knowing Rosemary would want to keep the seeds. Finding what she was looking for, she pulled out her water bottle, quickly dumping the remaining water out on the ground just as Rosemary reeled in the net. She gently guided the seeds, now fighting and spitting sparks agains the side of the net, into the water bottle. 

Laura let out a squawk and dropped the water bottle as the seeds began to melt the plastic. Rosemary pointed her wand at the bottle and the plastic clouded briefly, before clearing as it was transfigured into glass. Summoning it to her, Rosemary examined the seeds through the glass briefly before tucking the bottle into her hip pack and turning back to the plant. 

“Mightn’t we call someone about that?” Laura asked, after another minute of contemplating the still thrashing plant. Laura kept her stick at her side, carefully away from the half doze remaining vibrant purple blooms. The leaves were vaguely fig shaped, but Laura had never seen a fig with sparking purple flowers or heard of a magical variation. And figs didn’t grow well in England.

“Who?”

“Whatever office deals with rogue magical plants.” Laura waved her hand vaguely. 

“You think we can’t handle it?” There was a note in Rosemary’s voice that made Laura look over from her contemplation of the plant. Rosemary was standing with her hands on her hips, wand clutched in one fist, looking at Laura with eyebrows raised and challenge written all over her face. 

“I don’t fancy getting burned or poisoned or deafened or whatever this plant does to unsuspecting witches,” Laura groused. “It’s why I prefer muggle gardening. Muggle plants don’t actively try to maim you.” 

Rosemary opened her mouth and Laura quickly added, “Around here. Other than nettles.” Rosemary closed her mouth mollified. 

“What do we do with it? Somehow I don’t think burning it will be an effective means of destruction.” 

“Who says we want to destroy it?” Rosemary said, and Laura bit back a groan. Here they went again. Ever since Rosemary had discovered that Laura was also was a witch, Laura had been subjected to her now not so secret study of magical plants. In the past six months Rosemary had been burned, broken out in a purple rash all over, rendered unconscious for three hours, and had her hair set on fire twice. This plant didn’t appear to be any more benign than the others.

Rosemary was already charming a standard pot into one reinforced to contain the machinations of magical plant roots, so Laura set about charming a cardboard box to contain those vicious branches and sparking flowers once it was transplanted. Laura’s spellwork wasn’t as good as Rosemary’s, but she had always been good at charms, and working with Rosemary had brought back some of that old skill. Box reinforced with containment, fireproofing, and waterproofing charms, Laura set it on the ground next to the pot. 

They stared at the plant again, watching the branches weaving through the air like they were trying to cast spells themselves. For all Laura knew they were. 

“Well, nothing for it,” Rosemary announced, bringing up her wand after another quick check for observers. Before Laura could protest, she began casting series of spells at the plant, first freezing it in place, then tying up all the branches. A third spell loosened all the roots from the soil. Finally, Rosemary floated it up out of the ground and down into the pot. 

“There, that wasn’t so bad was it,” Rosemary said, crouching next to the now contained plant to study one of the flowers more closely. Before Laura could advise caution, the flower turned yellow and puffed a haze of sparkling pollen in Rosemary’s face. 

Rosemary fell backward, bringing her wand up to spray her face with an unfortunately well practiced decontamination spell. Laura moved the plant into the cardboard box and sealed it closed before rushing to Rosemary’s side. 

“Did you breath any in? Are you feeling numbness? Itching? Pain?” Laura hovered, her hands not quite touching Rosemary while Rosemary completed the decontamination spells. 

“No, I didn’t breath it in.” Rosemary said, setting down her wand. “But it definitely contacted my skin. I wonder if all the flowers have both seeds and pollen depending on the stimulus or if there is a difference between the flowers that I didn’t notice before?”

Rosemary moved towards the box, but Laura pushed it away. 

“No you don’t. You’ve already had contact with an unknown pollen once, and the seeds almost got distributed across muggle London. That plant is staying in that box until we can find someone to identify it.”

“I’m fine,” Rosemary complained, but didn’t move towards the box again. She looked at her watch, then around at the garden. “We’ve got another hour of good light left, we may as well get to it.” 

They worked until dusk, and then retreated to their lodgings for a shower and a change before descending to dinner. The plant was left locked safely in the boot of the car until they could get it to an expert the next day. 

As dinner passed and there were still no signs of any ill effects from the magical pollen, Laura began to relax.They had just settled into bed when Rosemary let out a dainty burp.

“Excuse me,” she said, looking surprised.

“You’re excused.”

Rosemary burped again. And then an outright belch, which was accompanied by, a puff of smoke? No, that had to be a trick of the light. But Laura reached for her wand on the bedside table anyway. The next belch was accompanied by a small jet of flame that set Rosemary’s book on fire. 

Laura squawked and squirted a small jet of water onto Rosemary’s book, extinguishing the flame. Rosemary’s glare was spoiled by another burp which just barely missed the cuff of Laura’s pajamas.

“Well, I guess we know what the effects of the pollen are,” Laura said grimly, digging through her purse. Finding what she was looking for, she turned around just in time to duck another gout of flame. 

“Here, try these.” She came up holding out four antacid tabs. 

“You’re only supposed to take two of those.” Rosemary complained, before burping again. This time, however, butterflies came out.

Laura raise her eyebrows and held out the tablets. Rosemary grabbed them and chewed them quickly before another belch released a cloud of fireflies. 

In another five minutes Rosemary had burped up more butterflies, lady bugs, a humming bird, and seeds that looked suspiciously like those produced by the plant earlier in the day. 

“Ok, we’re going to St. Mungo’s.” Laura declared once the sparking seeds had been contained in yet another transfigured water bottle. Rosemary nodded, looking resigned, but unable to open her mouth to argue for fear of what might come out. 

Laura locked the door, then holding Rosemary tight to her side, apparrated them into St. Mungo’s. 

“That sounds like a Ficus variablus,” declared Madame Cornus, the botanical expert that had somewhat grumpily been brought in to figure out what the mystery plant was so that the healers could stem the increasingly abundant wildlife and seeds coming out of Rosemary’s mouth. She looked significantly less grumpy now that Laura had described the plant and she had gotten a look at the sparking seeds. Rosemary looked quite put out at being left out of the discussion, but every time she opened her mouth to try and join in, a different insect, bird, or another burst of seeds came out.

“It’s quite rare, native to a small area in Persia. It doesn’t grow here, we don’t have the native pollinators it needs, so the one you found must have been imported. A muggle garden you say?” Rosemary nodded, looking fascinated, but Laura was becoming impatient.

“And how do we counteract the effects of the pollen?” She asked pointedly. 

“Oh!” Madame Cornus held out her hand. “You eat a fig!” Laura boggled for a moment, before snatching the fig form Madame Cornus’ hand and shoving it at Rosemary. Rosemary wrinkled her nose, figs were not her favorite fruit, but took it and ate it quickly, opening her mouth just enough to shove the fig in.

“Now,” said Madame Cornus, “I don’t suppose you’d let me take a look at this plant you found? I’ve never actually seen one, just read about them. The properties of the flowers are supposed to be quite remarkable.”

“Of course!” Rosemary said, and then waited with her mouth slightly open. Laura gave a sigh of relief when no further creatures emerged after several seconds.

“But not tonight,” she said, standing close to Rosemary.

“No, I suppose it is quite late. You’re welcome to come round tomorrow though.” 

There was a general exchange of information, and the usual checking out procedures, and then, finally, Laura apparated them back to their room. As soon as she was sure she hadn’t splinched them, she pulled Rosemary into a deep kiss.

“We are going to set a new rule. No getting within three feet of an unknown magical plant without a full set of biohazard gear,” she declared as they pulled apart. Rosemary made a non-committal noise, but lay her head on Laura’s shoulder. 

“How about we go to bed and you can make sure that the plant didn’t have any other side effects?”

Laura briefly considered trying to further make her point, but only very briefly.


End file.
